There's a reason
by AllTheWrongLoves
Summary: There's a reason Nate hates clowns... - -


**Hur-hur..i was thinking about what Nate said in U2 about hating clowns and it made me wonder. What happened? I don't own anything.**

Nate sighed in annoyance as he followed Sully through the gigantic crowd of people at the local fair one hot summer day. Sully had a buddy who worked part time when the annual fair came along as a concession man and was willing to join them on a complicated job. Nate mentally snarled as a chunky man bumped into him by the shoulder. He hated huge crowds; he always felt cornered, and it didn't help that his sixteen year old hormones were on the frits that day. Who was he kidding-they were on the frits every day!

"Tell me again why we can't do this on our own?" he complained and glared at his mentor. Sully grinned at him in a mocking sort of way-something he had been seeing often, considering he had been a moody teenager for a solid week.

"What's the matter kid? Not a fan of fairs?" Nate scrunched his nose and grunted when yet another man bumped into him.

"No. I'm not a fan of crowds either." He quipped. The scrunch got deeper as Sully ruffled the teenagers' sweat dampened hair.

"But seriously-this guy knows a thing or two about security alarms that could be really useful." Nate crossed his arms across his chest as they continued their stroll through the clumps of family and friends. "Have some chill pills." Sully added on.

"Whatever." He huffed, groaning in agitation as yet ANOTHER person bumped into him, but this time he stumbled and tripped over someone else's feet, losing his balance and toppling to the concrete. He sighed in utter annoyance as he pulled himself from the hot ground and brushed some dirt of his jeans. When he looked around, he realized he lost Sully. His shoulders slumped and he tried to find his path he had been taking, but he couldn't find it. He was lost. Crap!

Xx

Sully wormed his way through the crowd until he was at a bright red booth where a burly man with slight slivers of grey hair was giving a little girl and ice cream cone. He smirked.

"Jon 'ice cold' burns giving out ice cream. Never thought I'd see that day." The man looked up to the sound of his voice, a massive grin splitting across his face. He moved out of the booth to give his friend a hug.

"Victor 'Godamn' Sullivan!" they embraced briefly in a fit of chuckles. "Glad you made it!"

"I am too with these freakin' crowds!" Jon shrugged.

"Eh-it's like this at the beginning of summer. It'll thin out later in the season." He patted Sully on the back and looked behind him, confusing his friend.

"What?" Jon bit his lip.

"Didn't you say you were bringing someone?" Sully frowned.

"Yeah, he's-"when he saw Nate wasn't with him he sighed and turned back to his friend. "Lost." Goddamnit.

Xx _thirty minutes later_

Nate craned his neck as he stood on the tip of it his toes, attempting to look over peoples' heads. He was tall enough-but there was a sea of people! How could he find Sully in all of it? He dropped back down to the flat of his foot and sighed. So his options were either wonder around aimlessly until he found his mentor, or risk getting kicked out and climbing a booth to catch site of the man. He was going with option one. He started his tread once again, worming and maneuvering through the people until he was at a small amount of space, a few little kids staring at him, saying absolute gibberish with balloons or candy. He didn't know why he didn't like fairs. They had plenty of them in Cartagena. Maybe it was the meaning for them; for families to have a day of joy together and forget all about their worries. But he was on his own, and usually claimed a spot far away from the chaos.

'You're not alone anymore…' a small voice said in his head. It had been there for months now and wouldn't leave him be!

Irritation replaced the moment of sadness in his mind as continued to work through the crowds. 'Damnitt Sully where are you?' he thought. Surely the middle aged man couldn't have gone far in this place! He suddenly heard some kids squealing and laughing, but he ignored it and kept up his steady walk. Until a familiar pressure graced his shoulder, the firm but gentle grasp all he needed to know who it was. Relief pushed a sigh out of him.

'Ugh! Thank god!' he turned around, ready to go after his mentor with angry questions-until his eyes met maniacal green ones rimmed with blue, a bulbous red nose and lips lined with the same blue paint stretched with a loopy grin. His blood went cold, his eyes widened, and utter FEAR filled him to the brim. "Hyuk, hyuk!"

Xx

"Sully, how do you lose a sixteen year old kid?" Jon asked as they scoured the streets for Nate. Sully tried to see the kids' plain white t-shirt, but there were so many it was hard to tell which one belonged to his protégé.

"Shut up Jon. Kid? Nate?" the smallest hint of dread flashed in his mind. Even though Nate was a smart kid, there wasn't a lot he could do against creeps quite yet. The middle aged man dropped his arms to his side. He risked asking a few people, but all of them shook their heads at his description.

"I mean really! I can understand a ten year old, but a SIXTEEN year old?" Jon couldn't resist chastising Sully. He wasn't expecting Sully to lose a teenage boy-hell; he wasn't expecting him to bring one! But hey, the man always surprised him.

"Yeah, I know it seems ridiculous and you can pester me about it later. Just help me find him!" he took a puff of a cigar he had lit out of habit. the dread wasn't really foreign to Sully; he had felt it when he saw Marlowe's men go after Nate a year ago, he felt it when Nate had been arrested in Peru just two months ago, just a week before the kids' birthday too…and now he was feeling it again. 'Where are you kid?' They pushed past group after group, looking for the teen in hopeless circles. Sully was about to just climb onto a booth and scan the crowds for his still young protégé. He was bound to be somewhere.

"YAHHHHHHHH!" a low, yet breaking scream echoed across the pavement, making many people turn their heads to see what had caused such a scream from whoever it was. Sully recognized it though. He hoped it was. Nate He pushed hurriedly through the people that weren't interested in what went through the air, automatic fatherly fear making him move faster, until a body collided with his. Something flew by him and hid behind his back, hands gripping his arm.

"Get that motherfucker away from me!" Sullys' brain registered that it was Nate gripping onto him and that it really was him that screamed-not in pain-but fear. The relief from finding the teen was short lived as Sully braced himself for whoever was that made such a scream come out of him, and then he saw a confused man in a clown costume, holding a rubber chicken. Paranoia vanished as pure amusement ran through the middle aged man. He chortled as he reached behind him to pat Nates' back, nodding towards the clown. Psh-so a sixteen year old kid who almost out ran Marlowe's men, swiped his wallet, and made it on his own for who knows how long on the streets, was frightened by the sight of a clown!

Jon was fighting back a smirk as Sully pulled Nate from behind him and pushed him forward towards Jon's' booth, the kid shaking just a little.

"Didn't know you were afraid of clowns kid." Sully teased and ruffled Nate's even more drenched hair, earning a half playful shove from the now even more moody teen.

"Shut up! The dude snuck up on me and got in my face!" Sully chuckled and wrapped an arm around the kids' shoulders, giving them a rub. Nate snuck his arm around the mans' waist in response, the jibe forgiven, their embrace fairly rare but comfortable. He should have known Nate wouldn't be in any serious trouble out here. He flicked the bud of his cigar in the trash.

"Whatever doesn't bruise your ego, Kid. C'mon-Jon's getting some hotdogs. I don't know about you but I'm starving." The two worked their way through the thinning crowd-together this time- the sun starting to set and more of the crown leaving.

"I think I'm traumatized." Nate muttered. A loud guffaw came from his mentor.

**Tadaaa! XD oh poor Nate-don't worry you're not alone-I hate clowns too and I believe it traumatized me as well! Sully! You're such a softie! But I luv ya for it! :3 pfft! This is my third uncharted fanfic, and not the last! **


End file.
